Description
The purpose of this assignment is to present you with some alternative ways to look for new cures. Drug repurposing is a very attractive approach that screens current drugs for a new indication. For example, in this assignment you will learn about a drug, thioridazine, that was initially used as an antipsychotic medication. It turns out that TDZ is effective against extensive drug-resistant tuberculosis (which is a terminal disease with no current treatment options). Please read the attached paper and answer the following questions. This does not have to be in a 250-word abstract format. Just answer the questions
1. The article is relatively old (2010). It encouraged the initiation of clinical trials to test the efficacy of thioridazine on XDR-Tb.
According to the article, how many clinical trials on XDR-Tb were there in 2010? (1pt)
How many clinical trials on XDR-Tb are there today? (1pt)
2. The ClinicalTrials database is easy to navigate. Check how many clinical trials are there for Tuberculosis + Thioridazine (2pts)
3. What is the most compelling evidence that TDZ is effective for XDR-TB? (2pts)
4. According to the article, what is the patent status of TDZ and why is there no interest to repurpose it for XDR-TB? (2pts)
5. The assigned reading from lecture 29 (Czyz et al. 2014) identified thioridazine structural analogs (trifluoperazine, fluphenazine, promethazine, and chlorpromazine) as potent host-directed antimicrobial drugs. While thioridazine was toxic to THP-1 cells, trifluoperazine was shown to be effective against multiple bacterial species that are intracellular, just like Mycobacterium tuberculosis. According to the article, which intracellular pathogens are inhibited by trifluoperazine? (2pts)
